News

Waterloo Engineering alum Gerard McDonald (BASc ‘82, civil and environmental engineering) recently retired as CEO of Engineers Canada, a national organization that regulates the practice of engineering and supports the profession’s growth in Canada.  

In this Q&A, McDonald shares how his rewarding career unfolded and what he thinks makes a good engineer today.  

A Waterloo Engineering research team has developed an innovative design that allows modular timber structures to be easily relocated, reassembled and reconfigured in either urban or remote areas.

Dr. Daniel Lacroix, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Daniela Roscetti, a recent master's student, led the design development of a novel connector plate that, unlike traditional fasteners, connects cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels in a way that enables disassembly for easier reassembly and reuse. 

Twenty faculty members from the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo have been recognized among the top 2 per cent of scholars worldwide for the impact of their research publications.

This ranking was provided by ScholarGPS, a global analytics company that evaluates the influence of academic work.

Waterloo Engineering researchers have developed an innovative double-skin building façade that contains microalgae and uses machine learning to generate energy.

Led by Dr. Mohamad Araji, director of Architectural Engineering, the team optimized the cavity between a building's double-skin glass façade to expand the use of microalgae with the aim of making buildings net producers of energy, self-sustainable and independent of the power grid.

Dr. John Medley, an influential researcher and educator in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, passed away on October 16.

Medley joined the department in 1981 and contributed 35 years of service before retirement, educating generations of students and mentoring many young academics. He was also a proud Waterloo Engineering alumni and, as a student and teacher, played an important role in the rapid growth of the Faculty.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Waterloo's Faculties of Engineering and Science have received $2.5 million in federal funding to develop new ways to convert waste materials into valuable commodities. 

Led by Dr. Christian Euler, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the team is reimagining how plastics, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and agricultural residues can be transformed into biodegradable bioplastics or useful chemical products.

Murray Zink was an Instructional Support Coordinator at the University of Waterloo for over 15 years.

Now retired, he continues to be a driving force behind local repair culture and sustainability initiatives.

A Waterloo Engineering research team is using augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) to better understand — and maintain — the condition of Canada's critical infrastructure. 

Dr. Chul Min Yeum, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his colleagues have developed a system called the Smart Infrastructure Metaverse that uses AR/VR to allow on-site and off-site inspectors to interact in real-time as they view the real structure and a 3D scanned replica model simultaneously.

This opinion piece by the University of Waterloo’s Dr. Mary Wells, dean of Engineering; Dr. Lai-Tze Fan, Canada Research Chair in Technology and Social Change; and Dr. Ashley Mehlenbacher, Canada Research Chair in Science, Health, and Technology Communication, appeared today in the Toronto Star.

 It’s been more than a month since U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris launched her bid for the presidency and already AI-generated disinformation is working to smear her name. She’s not alone.

Waterloo Engineering master’s student Nicholas Levinski is developing a wearable device that can enhance patients' specialized treatment plans to reduce swelling caused by lymphedema.

Lymphedema is diagnosed when lymph, a clear fluid that contains nutrients and is also a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, is unable to flow normally and builds up in the soft tissues of an affected limb, causing painful swelling in patients' arms and legs.